


And Until This Day is Done

by Ezzy



Series: Protect [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Iron Man 3, M/M, Protective Rhodey, hinted Rhodey/Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 16:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ezzy/pseuds/Ezzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The footage of the Malibu estate blowing up is being in showed in slow-mo by the time Rhodey gets back from deployment. Apparently it’s been enough hours that the shock value has worn off, so the news stations have been forced to make it look like some kind of action stunt to keep it interesting. In Rhodey’s opinion it looks more like a horror film, as yet again he’s forced to watch Tony get destroyed from afar, with no way of interfering in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Until This Day is Done

I)  
The footage of the Malibu estate blowing up is being in showed in slow-mo by the time Rhodey gets back from deployment. Apparently it’s been enough hours that the shock value has worn off, so the news stations have been forced to make it look like some kind of action stunt to keep it interesting. In Rhodey’s opinion it looks more like a horror film, as yet again he’s forced to watch Tony get destroyed from afar, with no way of interfering in time. 

He needs to go help. He needs to check in with Pepper. He needs to find Tony. And oh God, that horrid emotion has wormed it’s way back into his belly; the one that ate at him in Afghanistan, and didn’t go away until he found him battered but alive out in the dunes. Tony.

Before he can even begin prepping for take off, he’s summoned by his superiors for a meeting. Going by their tone it’s more of a Meeting (and geez, maybe he has known Tony too long), and he has to tamp down on the words that are trying to crawl up his throat. 

You don’t understand, I’ve known him since he was fourteen, he used to fall asleep on me when we revised for finals and couldn’t even cook pasta. He’s not just some rich asshole you have to deal with because he makes stuff, he’s Tony.

The cynical part of him can admit that no one, especially in the higher rankings, would buy that, and he doesn’t have the words to properly communicate everything the man is to them, at least not enough to convince them to give him leave to fly off and assist. Besides, by now he’s military through and through. With one final look at the burning wreckage he salutes and marches to meet his summons. 

 

 

II)  
A part of him can’t help but find it strange, how before he was actually present to watch the events unfold, whereas now he was apparently gone long enough for Tony to be declared officially missing. Both make his gut clench. 

Apparently a search has already been conducted, and no trace found, but Rhodey knows these people, and remembers how quick they were in trying to get him to give up the search before. They don’t know Tony, they don’t know that once, when he got trapped in a lab that had been filling up with noxious fumes, he’s crawled through the air vents to escape, just so he could demand someone treat him before he passed out right now.

He thinks he’s keeping his face neutral, but the Colonel is looking at him with more sympathy than he cares to admit. 

“He was blown out of the sky, son. We’ve searched the area he probably landed in and there was no sign. Besides, even if he did somehow survive the fall, the sheer weight of the water and temperatures probably carried him off. You’re duty is here.” 

Iron Man is gone, already declared dead in their minds. But what had once started off as an annoyance to them is now a worldwide necessity. 

Fortunately for the world they already have plans to replace him.

 

 

III)  
It’s a newer, sleeker model of his current War Machine, and they proudly tell him they managed to rescue it from the ruins of the Malibu estate and put it back together. As if scavenging off a dead man is something to be proud of now. 

They explain that whilst War Machine does an excellent job, Iron Man is really the public face, and that whilst he is missed and while of course they’d never dream of replacing him people need something to cling to. And suddenly it all makes sense. 

The flashy paint-job, combined with the sexier lines of the suit…they want him to be Tony. The world loves Iron Man, with his quick wits, daring deeds and dazzling image, and without him the Government and Military have decided to give them the next best thing. 

He wants to tell them that he can’t be Tony; he’s not as brash, as funny, not nearly charming enough, and he’ll never be able to stand in front of a line of show girls and pull anything off. He doesn’t want to; that’s Tony’s gig and it’s a role he’s made his own. But the awful thing is he does understand the meaning behind it – Iron Man is a hero people believe in, and they can’t have that faith shattered, not in the face of this new terrorism. 

He takes the suit. And deliberately doesn’t think of a night, when he took a different suit, in a shattered room that has now been completely obliterated. 

 

 

IV)  
Iron Patriot has the full backing of the Government, and is launched with all the pomp and splendour. It’s the only form of expo or show girls Rhodey can deal with. 

Despite all this (or maybe because of it) the population doesn’t immediately embrace the whole thing. Naturally, they’re not stupid, and they know one flashy suit does not equal another. And they love Tony, and how terrible is it that a man who never felt loved is adored by millions after his supposed death? Nevertheless, they look at Rhodey with suspicious eyes.

You are not Iron Man.

They seem to say.

I know, he silently replies, I don’t think I can ever be.

 

 

V)  
It takes him twenty-four hours to get around to contacting Pepper, and he feels awful. It was only two in Afghanistan. 

She doesn’t say anything about it, just smiles in a strained fashion and asks how he is. From her lap a familiar helmet stares him down. 

 

 

VI)  
He lies awake that night, thinking over the day’s spectacle and worrying if he’s done a good job and tries not to dwell on how before it was always how successful the mission was. He is not a show-man and the strain is already beginning to tell. 

There are a lot of things he tries not to dwell on; where Tony is, if he’s still alive, how he should be trying to find him, what he would think of this…

'Tony, Tony, Tony…'

And, like every night, before he drops off;

'Goodnight Tony.'


End file.
